Chrome OS Officially Dropping in Late Fall

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Chrome OS first became official in November of last year with Google unveiling the open source operating system promising that it will be the best Internet oriented operating system on the market with a price tag of nothing (considering it is open source), much like most of their other products. Ever since its announcement, Google has been generally quiet when it comes to the open source operating system, instead letting their open source mobile operating system, Android, get most of the spotlight.

While we’ve seen some beta releases that are anything but ready for prime time, Google has, up until now, failed to give us a solid release window for which we can expect the open source Chrome OS to begin shipping to manufacturers and the general public. Luckily, according to Reuters, Google’s main man behind the Chrome OS project, Sundar Pichai, recently took center stage at this year’s Computex to let us know that the operating system is set to be released in the “late fall” of this year.

So, there’s no telling on what exact date this means Google will ship Chrome OS, or if Google will even manage to get it out on time, it’s safe to assume that the operating system will be available before the end of the year.

If you’re still a bit iffy about Chrome OS and wondering how it will co-exist with more developed operating systems like Microsoft’s Windows 7 and/or Apple’s OS X, you have to take an objective look at it. While it probably won’t replace your Mac or Windows PC anytime soon, having Chrome OS on things like a netbook or tablet don’t seem like a bad idea. We’ve already seen Android make its way onto both netbooks and tablets but many users have questioned whether or not the operating system is a proper fit for such applications.

With Chrome OS, Google takes a step behind Android and delivers a more PC like experience with familiar applications like their Chrome browser and virtually their entire suite of freely available services.

All I know is that if Google manages to grab some support from software manufacturers and makes an operating system that can run products I use on a daily basis (namely Photoshop) I have no problem making the switch or at least giving Chrome OS a fair shot. Hell, I’ll even settle for Photoshop’s open source alternative GIMP. I mean, Chrome OS is a Linux based operating system, after all, so if Google doesn’t allow users to install GIMP out of the box, the community should have no problem getting the software to boot up.